Outspoken Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin says a Durham police detective accused him of “being a card-carrying member of al-Qaeda” on Twitter after the ombudsman took sharp aim at police following the shooting death of Toronto teenager Sammy Yatim.

On Thursday, not long before Marin was going to announce an investigation into the province’s direction to police on de-escalating conflict situations, an anonymous Twitter account named “Joe Mayo” tweeted at the ombudsman’s account: “[Marin] is card member of Al Qaida.”

In all caps, the same account also tweeted that Marin was “a complete douche bag!”

“Why don’t you stick your big French nose up your ass instead of business where it doesn’t belong,” the tweet added.

At a news conference Thursday, Marin said he had not contacted police about the messages but included the police officer’s twitter handle when responding. He said he wasn’t sure what his next step would be but hoped police would take it from there.

“I think it’s quite deplorable for a police officer to tweet this kind of material over the Internet and I would hope for a more informed dialogue,” he said at the press conference.

Marin said he did not believe these tweets were motivated by his interest in the Sammy Yatim shooting.

“I’ve got thick skin,” he said, adding that he has received death threats in the past. He would not comment on the nature of the death threats.

Marin said his office had been the subject of attacks on Twitter recently. Marin had done a number of highly critical media interviews after Toronto police fatally shot 18-year-old Yatim on a streetcar.

Yatim was alone a Dundas streetcar, holding a knife, when police fired nine shots at him, striking him multiple times in late July.

“What we saw on the [streetcar] is not something that is completely unfamiliar with the Toronto Police Service. There have been literally dozens of inquests that have recommended measures to de-escalate this kind of conflict,” Marin told the CBC.